New bar opens in Old Town Fort Collins following months of renovations at former Wall Street spot

Owners of the Blind Pig Pub hope they can put the Old Town gathering place's troubled past behind it.

Mar. 7, 2013

Steve Folkerts, left, and Bruce Johannsen, right, both of Fort Collins have a beer Thursday and talk with Rebecca Wells, behind the bar, at the public opening of the Blind Pig Pub on Linden Street in Old Town Fort Collins. / V. Richard Haro/The Coloradoan

Manager Chris Yochum gets organized at the bar for Thursday's public opening of the Blind Pig Pub on Linden Street in Old Town Fort Collins. / V. Richard Haro/The Coloradoan

The bar at the Blind Pig on Linden Street in Old Town Thursday March 7, 2013. / V. Richard Haro/The Coloradoan

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A new bar opened Thursday in Old Town Fort Collins, with managers saying they’ve been getting well-wishes from locals who hope they can put the space’s troubled past behind it.

A new bar opened Thursday in Old Town Fort Collins, with managers saying they’ve been getting well-wishes from locals who hope they can put the space’s troubled past behind it.

“Last night was great. We had a great crowd and we’re excited for tonight,” Chris Yochum, one of the managers, said Thursday afternoon.

The bar serves a variety of food, and on Thursday night planned live music.

Last May, city officials permanently closed the previous bar in that space, Wall Street, after police found drunken patrons, unattended alcohol and other problems during a surprise inspection.

They also discovered the man who said he owned it was actually working for the bar’s previous owners, who had been banned from running a bar in Fort Collins.

Police say those former owners then gutted the bar, stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fixtures and equipment. The city had also forced those previous owners to shut down and sell the bar, which at the time was known as the Sports eXchange.